Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Nov 15: Bringing forth the psychological turmoil faced by a childless couple, the Punjabi play ‘Kuleshney’ was performed by Manoranjan Kala Kendra on day-3 of the ongoing Annual Theatre Festival being organized by J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages, at the Abhinav Theatre, here today.
Written by Harsaran Singh and directed by T.S. Premi, the play is a bold take on the issue as the infertile husband unable to fulfill wife’s desire to become a mother suggests adopting a child. But the wife in her want of a biological child sleeps with husband’s inebriated friend. Her pregnancy becomes a source of intense hatred by her husband. The fetus’ malnutrition results in the immediate death of the newborn. After many twists and turns of the plot, the psychological chasm between couple remains unresolved.
Despite the passion and dedication of senior theatrist T.S. Premi for theatre and especially staging play in Punjabi language, today play which revolved around two main characters: Pati (Sohan Verma) and Patni (Aparna Sharma) came out as a text-heavy affair. Only grace was that two actors managed to speak their lines in a flow. The duo’s reactions, gestures, body movements became almost predictable after few scenes. Each scene closed with actors going into a freeze frame till the lines of the background song were sung. The highlight of the play was the soulful singing of the background songs by Kumar Shanu, but it lost sheen due to the repetition.
The other members of the cast were Seema Dogra as Nurse and Makhan Lal Sharma as Dost. Lights were by Raj Kumar Bhat and Ajay Sharma, set by Ajay Kumar and Narayan, music by Balwinder Singh, make-up by Neena Rani, Rajni Bala and costumes by Balwinder Kaur.
Tomorrow, N.D Jamwal’s Dogri play Kunju Chanchalo will be staged by Unison Cultural Club under the direction of Sandeep Verma.
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